Father’s Day is an extra special date in the calendar for one Yorkshire ‘super dad’ who has devoted his life to caring for children with complex needs.
Ben Carpenter, 39, from Huddersfield, adopted his first child at the age of just 21, and over the years adopted another five children with additional needs after setting out on a mission to help the UK’s most vulnerable of children.
“Father’s Day means everything to me. Being a father has been a dream come true, a real dream come true,” Carpenter told GB News.
“I knew becoming a father would mean to help Britain’s most vulnerable children within the care system, and that’s what led me on to becoming an adoptive parent.
“To me, being a father is much more than being biologically linked to a child.”
Carpenter's first adopted Jack, now 15, who has autism, then Ruby, 12, who has complex needs, Lily, 10, who is deaf, Joseph, 7, who has Down's Syndrome and four-year-old Louis, who has Cerebral Palsy and is blind.
His two-year-old son Teddy had a rare genetic disorder called Cornelia de Lange syndrome and tragically passed away in 2019 due to sepsis.
The doting dad has now also teamed up with charity and foster agency the Children's Family Trust to foster children who otherwise be in the care system.
It’s in the backdrop of a major foster care shortage in the UK exacerbated by the rising cost of living and the fallout from Covid.
Research from Capstone Foster Care shows that by 2025 the number of children entering foster care could reach 100,000, creating a shortage of around 25,000 foster carers.
Teddy tragically passed away in 2019 due to sepsis
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“I chose to foster because there is so much more that I can give to society and give to children who are in desperate need of a safe and stable environment, and by fostering, I am able to offer a home, that love and that stability, dignity and respect to a vast amount of children,” said Carpenter.
“I chose to foster with the Children's Family Trust and there’s no words to describe them, other than amazing. They are so thoughtful and so caring and what I needed as a single dad with children with complex needs was a hand-holding approach and the Children's Family Trust offer that.
“I’m 39 this time and I can see myself as an 80-year-old man who has fostered hundreds of children, and the door will always be open.”
Marina Mullholland is the CEO at the Children's Family Trust and she says that there has been a drop in the number of foster carers with an increase in the number of children needing homes.
“Right now for the first time ever, what we’re seeing is more carers leaving fostering than coming into fostering, which that in itself is a huge worry,” Mullholland told GB News.
“But then to make things worse, we’ve got more children coming into care than ever before so we’ve got an influx of children coming in, and an influx of carers going out, and so not enough places for children, not enough families for children.”
The need for more foster carers is echoed by Becci Sharpe, Senior Supervising Social Worker for The Children's Family Trust.
She works with Carpenter and says the charity and foster agency could not be more grateful of his skills.
“The children that he [Ben] cares for are children that would be in hospital until a carer was found,” said Sharpe.
“We just need people to get on board and become foster carers. I think there’s a lot of mystery around foster care – ‘can I do it, do I need to own my own house’, none of those things are a barrier to being a foster carer.
“You just need to be over 21, have a spare bedroom and want to work with kids.”
For more information on The Children's Family Trust visit their website thecft.org.uk or call 0300 111 1945.
